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Thursday, April 29, 2010

4 days until the 1/2 marathon

Four days to go until 1/2 marathon... After reading so many blogs and so many books, I think I have mastered the theory pretty well, even if the application eludes me. So here is what I know:

- The Pittsburgh 1/2 marathon was not supposed to be an "A" race, which means I should not taper too much for it.

- I should not have great expectations since it is my first race and tons of things are doomed to happen.

The reality is vastly different. Initially I chose to do the 1/2 marathon as practice for my 1/2 Ironman in August and to keep me motivated to run (which I thought would be hard). However, after three months, I am enjoying running and look forward to the 1/2 marathon as a great opportunity to test my running. I was not going to taper for the 1/2 marathon, since I figured I need all the training I can get before this summer, however it all worked out differently.

I think I worked out a bit too hard last week, and despite taking Saturday off, could not coerce my legs to move on Sunday. So I skipped Sunday's workouts (the fact that the weather was crappy made the decision pretty easy). My totals for last week were:Week 15 (19 April)Swim: 8,400 ydsBike: 80 milesRun: 20 milesTotal: 11 hours

This week also did not start very promisingly. I cut Monday's swim short (this swim did include my personal best on 200 yds x 3: 3:12, 3:12, 3:13 and 100 IM, 1:49) and skipped Monday evening's run. On Tuesday morning I did make it to the gym and did my hardest gym-bike-trainer to date. 2 hours at an average of 17.5 mph (it was a gym trainer so who knows how well calibrated it was) and an average heart rate of 142. I guess I did manage to rest the legs after all.

On Tuesday evening, I timed myself on a 10K and did it in 54:35. According to McMillan's calculator, I could finish the 1/2 in slightly over 2 hours (2:01:27). When I plug my last 5K time (25:06 on a certified course), I could even do it in 1:56:01. So my super super goal is to get it done in under 2 hours. My more realistic goal is to finish in under 2:15. And my more basic goal is to just finish the thing and have fun...

So now, I am trying to balance the need to keep up with my triathlon training and keep my legs rested for Sunday. Today I went for another 2 hour gym-bike-trainer workout and only managed to hang on for 1:45 before calling it quits. Tomorrow and Friday I am planning to swim in the morning, bike tomorrow evening and run on Friday night. Saturday we will be visiting Pittsburgh so we will be doing a lot of walking. Excluding the walking and the 1/2 marathon, that will still be about 10 hours of training.

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About Me

I just finished my first season of training for everything I could get myself into (which also entailed collecting every gadget I could get my hands on). For the 2011 season, I am hoping to never again enter a race untrained and be a bit more focused with training. If you have any suggestions, please share!